The Floyd delivers best in Hobart

A confident drive by Lee Simmonds has seen Village Jasper gelding The Floyd notch up his first win of the season in Hobart on Friday night.

Simmonds allowed the pacer to roll forward from the wide draw in the 2090-metre event, where she took up the lead passing the 1150-metre mark and she let the pacer bowl along in front before running away from his rivals over the concluding stages to score by 21 metres in 1m 58.9s.

“Sometimes his manners aren’t the best, but he got out of the gate well and I thought I would push forward and let him run, which is how he probably runs best,” said driver and owner Lee Simmonds about the win.

The pacer has had four starts this season and put the writing on the wall with a brave fourth behind Harjeet in a free-for-all in Launceston on 8 August, but with the gelding drawing barrier seven in a rating 50 to 54 event on Friday, punters allowed the Todd Rattray-trained pacer to be sent around as a $10 chance.

“The reason behind that was that he was getting balloted a lot, and he can get above himself and a bit fresh, so we put him in there to give him a run and he performed well,” explained Simmonds.

Simmonds works on a part-time basis with the Todd Rattray stable, and she is enjoying the experience.

“I still help my husband Col with his business as well, but I am learning a lot out there with the Rattray’s, which has been good,” she explained.

It was a big night for Ben Yole with five training wins through Mach Charm, Rowley, Ozzie Major, Machavelli and Tarleton Riley, which saw the trainer become the first in the nation this season to prepare 150 winners.

The only driver to record a double on the card was Jordan Chibnall, who scored with Mach Charm and Ozzie Major.

By Duncan Dornauf for Tasracing